to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations.

MARCH 4, 1865.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _March 8, 1865_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

The fourth section of the law of 16th January, 1857, provides that
reserved officers may be promoted on the reserved list, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, and under this authority various
officers of the Navy have been promoted one grade from time to time.

I therefore nominate Commander John J. Young, now on the reserved list,
to be a captain in the Navy on the reserved list from the 12th August,
1854, the date when he was entitled to his regular promotion had he not
been overslaughed. It is due to this officer to state that he was passed
over in consequence of physical disability, this disability having
occurred in the discharge of his duties; and prior to his misfortune
he bore the reputation of an efficient and correct officer, and
subsequently has evinced a willingness to perform whatever duties were
assigned him.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1865_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In answer to the Senate's resolution of the 6th instant, requesting the
return of a certain joint resolution,[16] I transmit a report from the
Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

[Footnote 16: Entitled "Joint resolution in relation to certain
railroads."]

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the twenty-first section of the act of Congress approved on the
3d instant, entitled "An act to amend the several acts heretofore passed
to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and
for other purposes," requires "that, in addition to the other lawful
penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service,
all persons who have deserted the military or naval service of the
United States who shall not return to said service or report themselves
to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the proclamation
hereinafter mentioned shall be deemed and taken to have voluntarily
relinquished and forfeited their rights of citizenship and their rights
to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever incapable of
holding any office of trust or profit under the United States or of
exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons who shall
hereafter desert the